September, 2018 – October, 2018

After a brief hiatus, the beehivers are back again with a new issue of Fundamatics. We bees have missed the warm, glorious sunshine during the damp monsoon months. So, we are quite happy to leave our hives and once again spread out our dampened wings under the reinvigorating touch of the warm, autumn sun. We are excited about putting the monotone of monsoon skies behind us and embracing a horizon that is bursting with new colours and along with it new possibilities. The vibrant color palette is redolent of revelries that lie ahead.

We are also feeling slightly overwhelmed, at how time has slipped between our wings. Yes, the year is well on its way out. We will soon need to turn the hourglass for a fresh start. Now is the time to revaluate, to re-engage in a flurry of activity and share myriad pieces with you. Adieu, rain winds. Welcome, glorious clear skies, fresh flowers and new pots of honey.

No, not that type of fan– the star-obsessed weirdo, the one who tried to attract Jodie Foster’s attention by shooting President Reagan decades ago, or the jilted look-alike trying to destroy his idol in SRK’s 2016 Bollywood release.

Not the old–fashioned wooden or cane punkha either. Neither the small hand-held ones we used during power-cuts a few years ago nor the majestic ones described in old novels – those that presided over the dinner table at parties and solemnly swayed to and fro when the fan-boy tugged on a rope.

I was talking to a Jawan in the Indian Army posted at a border post in Batalic sector. Mind you, this is one of the posts at the border of Pakistan and India. Violation of ceasefire can take place any day, at any time of the day. Gun fires, grenades can hit you any time, nobody is certain of life at the next moment. And this guy was saying ‘No Tension’!!

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” ― Albert Einstein

Close your eyes for a minute and try to imagine a world without music. When I do that, life without music evokes in me visions of being forced to trudge through a dreary and endless desert under a scorching sun with no water and no food. Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosopher said “Without music, life would be a mistake”. Many centuries before him, Plato is quoted as saying “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” And Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-American poet and a contemporary of Nietzsche, wrote “Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.”

India annually imports medical devices worth over Rs. 30,000 crores, most of them unaffordable and unsuitable for local population. There is a need to indigenously develop high-quality yet affordable devices for local manufacture and use. Biomedical Engineering and Technology (incubation) Centre or BETiC at IIT Bombay is bringing the relevant stake-holders together for this purpose.

As a child, I observed my Mother would never throw down anything on the pavement. Like her, I carry home a banana skin, a used paper napkin if I cannot find a dustbin. Everyone thinks they are the only ones flinging out a tiny piece of uneaten apple out of the car window.

Long years ago, in what now seems like a previous lifetime, I used to drive every morning to work, and listening to the radio was an enjoyable distraction from the crazy traffic and a way to keep up with the latest music. Now I work from home and along with driving, listening to the radio has become a rare occurrence! But this morning I was in my car driving after a long time, and switched on the radio. Every single advertisement had something to do with illness – ads for medicines conveniently delivered at home, ads for new super speciality hospitals opening up, ads which tell you not to ignore stomach pain as it might turn into cancer, ads for health insurance which will cover not only the cost of your treatment abroad but also fly you and a companion there by business class! Just listening to the ads is enough to make you sick.

An attractive opportunity develops: About a decade ago, during an evening visit to the neighbourhood garden with her friends, my mother heard about a Vitamin E supplement that improved the quality of one’s skin and hair. One of the elderly ladies in the group had been prescribed the tablet by her doctor. My mother and all the other ladies in that group ended up checking with their doctors and then taking the Vitamin E supplement too.